It is raining cats, dogs, and frogs at this point. It is a day overdue for a scheduling phone call. We are being inundated by calls from the countertop people, but the cabinets, which have to be installed first, are not here yet.
Thursday is Thanksgiving. Friday it will be sunny, but still soggy. We do not know whether these cabinets are coming wrapped in plastic and on pallets, or what. We have plenty of tarps, but our garage is not connected to the house, so there is no easy shelter.
Well, well, if things were simple, life could get boring. Ours never is.
Even if the cabinets come in on pallets and wrapped in enough plastic sheeting to make Noah happy, whose car will they block in?
DH just informed me our water bill spiked last month, so I need to go around the grounds and see if one of our pipes has sprung a leak. I was intending since the last time we holed a pipe to look into having the exterior water line to the house replaced, but that was over 5 years ago and life of course intervened. Last time it was easy to spot, but this time we got rain recently, so soggy ground and burgeoning greenery aren’t adequate markers.
Well, we either have to put them in a lump under tarp, or somehow stack them in the kitchen, which has no room; or pull out Jane’s car, put it under tarp, then put the cabinets in the garage—it is a double garage. But the car then partly blocks the path to the house and kitchen. This is going to be interesting. But we are now mostly into a waiting game.
And Thanksgiving.
You’ll have to do a partly retroactive partly proactive Thanksgiving — being retroactively thankful for all the thankworthy things that have already happened this past year, but then being proactive by anticipating how thankful you’re going to be when all this kitchen remodel stuff is FINALLY done.
I’ve also found that when I get frustrated and angry, beating my bed with my pillow helps me vent all that pent up anger and frustration without actually hurting anybody — and plumps up my pillow nicely, for the double win.
Lol! Well, Scott is coming in today to install the stained glass transom and hang the doors on the equipment closet and the food pantry, so Jane and I can put up some shelves and perhaps lessen the stack of sacks and boxes, especially if we can install the shelves and doors of the hutch so it can swallow the stacks of china and fragiles. I’m of a mind to sell off most of our collection of Lenox princesses (fairy tale and historic figurines) that we just have no room for…Ebay or something. They’re not the sort of thing for garage sales. But that would free up some space.
Now I REALLY want a picture of the stained glass transom! My experience with stained glass is the cheater’s way out, using the liquid paint-on, on Plexiglas. OTOH, it did give us a nice fake nebula in the window under the a/c unit (I call it the ‘Goldfish’ nebula, because of how it turned out).
Ebay is good. My experience is if you know well what you are selling and can describe it accurately and adequately to the buyers you will do as well as possible. I fell into difficulties when I really didn’t know the market and the bidders got annoyed at me for some basic stuff they new and I didn’t (like the size of the handmade Asian doll mattere). Lots of good pictures, measurements and so on are useful. You probably know all this already.
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Happy Thanksgiving to all the salads and associates in the US.
Nobody has been suggesting places and activities for a ShejiCon this coming year.
I have a set of suggestions for a ShejiCon based in Tucson in October next year, but it would be expensive as it would require hiring a bus for transport to the attractions plus admissions (Kitt Peak – observatory and telescopes including McMath Solar telescope; Mt Graham – Large Binocular telescope; Mt Lemmon – sky survey for asteroids; Arizona Sonora Desert Museum; Pima Air Museum; Kartchner Caverns; Amerind Foundation; UofA Mirror Lab; Ramsey Canyon – bird sanctuary; Old Tucson – Nightfall haunted house) and would be at least five to seven days long. We could also arrange a meet and greet with Jennifer Roberson and Judith Tarr.
I’d actually prefer the driving tour CJ suggested in Colorado and New Mexico but I don’t have the expertise or familiarity to set it up.
There was a suggestion for Chicago, and another for Washington DC area but no substantive suggestions for attractions to see and activities to plan. CJ and Jane can’t plan it all or do all the research to act as native guides.
Please, submit any suggestions, so we can start planning. I’ll act as central point of contact or assist in any way I can if someone else wants to take the lead, but I can’t do this alone either.
Louisiana State Parks
Parks & Preservation Area
Fontainebleau State Park
I’m looking at the smaller group camp, but I’d need to put eyes on it first. If you are at a campsite the daily fee is waived. It is not more than about an hour outside the French Quarter, as well as having some good local restaurants nearby.
Perhaps we could do something in the Four Corners area. There are a number of national parks within a day’s drive of each other: Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Mesa Verde, even the Grand Canyon a little further out. If you don’t already have it, an annual National Parks pass will get in a carload to any park and costs under $90. Zion and Bryce Canyon are the two closest together if you don’t want to spend a lot of time driving between:
https://www.fodors.com/news/national-parks-2-3615
I would suggest everyone can come to Maui, but I doubt that’s in many people’s budgets 😀 We supposedly have an annual writer’s conference, but they may have moved it because I can’t find anything about the 2018 one.
Oh, and certainly a Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Budget is a big consideration with me, as is timing. I’m staring down the barrel of 6 months of chemotherapy, and I can’t plan more than two or three months ahead because of it. I have a CT ever 3 months and I’m close to the line. If my tumors get much bigger, then that’s it. Chemo time. I’ll be out of action for pretty much a whole year from whenever chemo starts.
Truly, I just want to see the garden, the koi pond, the lotus pond and have a brief visit. That’s all I’m talking about.
My second session (of six, over nearly 5 months) is on Tuesday. I am knitting hats, because hair has been disappearing for the last week and a half. I expect it to be gone in another three (the length of a cycle). Surgery, if needed, will be after that. I’ve had the initial CT and PET scans (and am disappoint that I don’t get to see the pictures from them), but so far the cancer hasn’t spread from its one site.
Targeted chemo. It could be worse; they’ve prescribed drugs for nausea, but that hasn’t happened. Yet. Dry skin and dry eyes, yes. Other stuff, yes.
WOL and PJ, my best wishes. That is rough and scary.
I will be pursuing a tax payment I missed clearing up after my move, but that should take care of that until next year. My finances are still not good, but are holding for now. Still hoping I can get income going better, or down the road, I’ll be in trouble again.
I also have to get back to the pursuit of Social Security Disability, so I can be eligible for needed eye care. I got so frustrated between the conflicting state and federal that, well, after several months, I dropped the ball. But it’s got to happen. I’m still uninsured and still no exam to see if I’m a candidate for cataract surgery, as they won’t schedule the exam or surgery without insurance coverage, as near as I can tell. Sigh. I have been very discouraged and silent about this, but have got to get it done somehow. — While the present administration is hell-bent on cutting back already ridiculously low and slow programs. Nuts.
Thanksgiving was so-so. I am determined to get supplies in and cook a small holiday dinner for myself and freeze leftovers. I also want fish, because I’ve been out for weeks, except (thankfully) for canned tuna. I’m going too far between grocery trips, and using all perishables. The cupboard is not bare, but being so low on basics makes me nervous.
I am learning and putting up with it, I guess.
It is getting me that I don’t have a roommate or more local friends or, well, someone special, a boyfriend or partner. That last, particularly, I think I have some sort of mental block, as much as my outlook has changed, I still seem to be stuck on tht. — But overall, despite trying to greet people around here, no real friendships have struck up yet, other than the friends who’ve helped (not so reliably) since last year. I have not put myself out there around the apartments, I guess, but I don’t often hear the adult neighbors outside much lately, just the kids, and I’d feel weird being the only adult out there, so I haven’t gone out for a while. Only rarely lately do I hear a couple of older teens or the adults. (And when I hear the mom and the son whose voice sounds like it’s in the middle of changing still, it’s always at odd times, but haha, every day or so. I can’t figure that out, but although I hear her being strict, I don’t hear them fighting, so I’m guessing they’re OK. Both are apparently active around here, but I don’t know how friendly they are with other neighbors. I have been aggravated a couple of times because I’d just missed them or I was busy ding something else. I don’t know (still) if I’ll get anything more than even a casual acquaintance with my neighbors. The thing is, the kids and adults sound nice, active, friendly enough, but when I’ve greeted people, there’s no more than a hello and passing by, and there haven’t been really gatherings like over the summer. So…I have to figure out a way around my own personality and my neighbors’ to get to know people. I had no idea that this far along, I would not have made a few friends here. :-/ Thing is, I think it’s not just me. — But on the flip side, any bad situations are rare here, the kids do feel safe to play, and so I think overall, I’m very lucky to be where I am. Just gotta work on it more.)
So…things are rocking along OK, I guess, but I’m also frustrated with my personal life and overall situation. It still has to improve a lot to give me a decent future again.
After a long lull, I’m back working better towards font-production, but sort of in a sophomoric period, where I don’t yet have full mastery yet and I’m discovering more what I don’t know and thought I did. Heheh. 😀 This, with the usual creative difficulties of turning what you imagine into a real, tangible thing, figuring out how to do that and iron out the imperfections or work around them, is taking a lot. (And I keep getting ideas and sketching, but have only been working on a few ideas already in progress, so maybe I’m improving.)
Writing fiction…is still stalled out. Oh, I’m writing, all right, but autobiographical and personal issues keep intruding, and, er, can you say, “unresolved gay relationship / romance issues” keep cropping up in stories that, well, don’t really go anywhere, and I keep discarding partial drafts.
I keep thinking that I’ll work through a science fiction or other story idea to (ahem) an actual middle and ending, but so far…nuts, this hasn’t happened. I don’t seem to be the “outlining” type; it goes stream-of-consciousness, which I don’t think is conducive to a real plotted-out story, even if I have some strong characters. (My editor hat and perfectionist streak mean that I tend to be very critical of whatever I’m writing, and y’know, I’m an amateur/wannabe still.) — I really want to find out how to get past this plateau or mental block and get a finished story done. — The ideas are too many and often mutually exclusive, unrelated, but sort of resonate / dissonance at times. Getting character or scene ideas doesn’t seem to be the problem, but a good plot that has a beginning, middle, end, climaxes and subplots, character arcs? Dang it, I expect those of a good story. So I’m still struggling with how to get it all tamed, focus down, get a single story or multiple stories going and work them out to the finish. (And I swear, the world-building just multiplies and morphs and characters change or pop up as I write.) It amazes me how professional fiction writers manage to make this look so dang easy, because they’re so skilled at it. And dang, I should be able to do this. I’ve had partial ideas, multiple chapters or world-building, going on since junior high or high school and college, for the oldest ideas still in there. So…I still want this to happen. I’m frustrated at my progress, or lack thereof, but I still have the urge and still feel this big creative rush when it does go well. Writing and acting are just more adult forms of, “Let’s play pretend, and you all get to watch or join in.” That’s still a wonderful thing. That storytelling urge is still important for writers and actors and audiences.
LOL, the kids outside are going wild, but having a ton of fun, it sounds like. Earlier, there was, what you could’ve sworn was a troop of chimpanzees yelling, but it was the kids playing and no one was getting hurt, just burning off steam. Then it became a very human thing, a spontaneous chant: someone was either past time or winning. And then it went right back to whatever they’re doing. I’m not even sure it’s any structured game like a ballgame. — The parents have let the kids out, likely in self-defense against all that excess energy being locked up inside their apartments. This happens regularly, haha. (Yeah, you can tell I don’t have kids, not a dad. 😉 )
So… Life’s going. I’m getting by. It is not the greatest, but it is far from the worst either. (The news this past week had new coverage of people still recovering or homeless following the hurricane at the end of August, who are making do for the holidays, and a highlight saying lots of children are still homeless from it — and presumably their parents. I didn’t watch the clip to see. (I’d be horrified if that actually meant there were a lot of kids not only homeless but without relatives now.) — So by comparison, well, my budget’s bad, nearly all my stuff is still in storage, and I’m eking out my life. But I have an apartment in pretty good shape, I can pay my bills for a good while still, and my vision and teeth are rocking along, not good but livable. So. Ici suis-je. Here I am.